Still not sure about Puel as he doesn't have any talent to work with (except VVD).

However, it does seem when all the highly rated managers turned us down, he was a cheap choice who would just stand on the sidelines as our low budget team ran around for 90 mins. So I doubt they will be getting rid of him. There is no fire or ambition in the front office and that has contaminated the team.

Ok Nick, with VVD suspended and Bertrand, Soares and Pied injured, who exactly did Puel leave out of his "strongest" back 4? Your criticism doesn't make any sense this time -- he played the strongest back 4 available to him.

honestly,i am suprised that puel is still in office.after 100 days of grace,he has not come with a plan to buy strikers and defenders and stop rotating the squad.i was suprised from the start about his Appointment so my stomach feeling was correct.i am very hopefull that if he remains i will be wrong at the end

Pleasing to see that despite the last three miserable defeats the majority of posters are not calling for the managers head on a pole.

It is surely not coincidental that our recent poor form coincides with the ever closer outcome of the alledged negotiations with the interested party from China. Human natures reaction to a vacuum is that of doing enough to get by in such circumstances and to wait and see what happens.In other words why put in any extra effort for a boss who may not be your boss very soon.

Truth is lotus, if Cortese had been running the shop Puel would have been long gone. Does Les have the bottle to sack anybody? I doubt it, recent previous managers cleared off as soon as they smelt the rotting corpse in the back room. If he sacks Puel he is admitting his own failure so it makes it highly unlikely we'll see the back of him anytime soon.

So many valid points made above, yet again, and even Nick has suddenly realised that his blind faith has perhaps been misplaced for too long. I especially agree with Saint Down Under about the formation confusion which I think is a big part of the current problem.

Both Pochetinno and Koeman were recruited on the basis that the club was committed to a style of play (including, but not solely, defending from the front and pressing hard) and this was manifestly achieved by a much more solid defence than we had perhaps ever possessed; most recently this was was accomplished by screening the defence from opposition midfield runners by posting Schneiderlein and Wanyama in front of the defence to repel attacks and to set up counterattacks. The club even went so far as to state that the 1-4-2-3-1 system was the chosen route to success and that it would be deployed by both the PL squad and the Under 21s to ensure consistent development of upwardly mobile young players who were not required to recalibrate their compass when promoted to the first team. But neither of these managers really favoured playing all that many young players, indeed Koeman supposedly was unimpressed with the reserve talent at his disposal!

So when both Poch and Ron became somewhat less enamoured about our club (due to the ejection of Cortese in the first instance and the serial sale of our best players two summers in a row, in the second instance - evidence to the two incumbent managers and many of the supporters that we were a club whose ambitions were really about optimising the profits of the owners) and wandered off for a good deal more money than we were willing to pay, the owners changed tack, with rather predictable consequences. By this time they had sold

Since then they have sold an astonishing total of 10 players who would certainly have been first team players had they stayed with the club beyond the summer transfer windows in which they were sold (plus letting Alderweireld slip through our fingers in farcical circumstances which have been customarily glossed over by the club). Ok we have certainly imported some very good talent as replacements eg Tadic, VVD especially, Romeu and Bertrand of those still with us and Forster (less convincingly). Nor do I discount the prospects of Boufal who exhibits considerable potential, Redmond who I think is very unfairly treated by the usual moronic minority sections of the crowd and Hojbjerg who seems to be a little less impressive each time I see him...rather worryingly.

Yes, I also think Yoshida has improved considerably this season and should be given credit for this advance and Soares has turned into a pretty decent full back after a rather unconvincing start and Clasie who has overcome a series injuries to make more of a mark on games than last season. But the point is that as everyone (perhaps even Nick knows) while the breadth of the squad has increased the quality has become more uneven.

I don't blame Puel for all of this and am not one of those who is at this stage clamouring for his replacement. In recruiting him the owners (never mind about Reed, he is required to achieve the best results given the strategy that the owners set. Which is to disinvest in the team by never spending in any one season more than we get in from sales of players and actually to spend considerably less wherever possible while returning to sourcing our own home grown talent. The majority of the megafunds from TV goes straight to the bottom line of the parent company and the dividends enjoyed by the shareholders.

The strategy appears to be to 1) keep turning players over every season and re-investing some of the profits, 2) pursue a cheaper ( but I concede worthwhile) policy of promoting young players in the hope of finding another Bale, Walcott, Chambers, Shaw etc who can be flogged off at considerable profits and 3) do the best with the players that you are given, so long as you stay in the PL to retain access to next years Sky cash...oh, and keep the fans more or less onside in the meantime. None of this is Puel's fault

The decisions to recruit the injury prone Austin, persevere with a long term convalescent JRod and expect more conversions by Long from chances created, while each individually defensible have all proven to be seriously flawed when put together (though I am very pleased that JRod does seem to have recently got it together a little more consistently in the last couple of weeks. But it is blindingly obvious that with the departure of Pelle (who was never an outstanding player but did possess some considerable qualities that we no longer have available) and Mane we have failed to sustain the quality of player in the key positions and the continuous rotation policy is madness.

Much is at stake in this transfer window, despite it being notoriously difficult to get value for money, both in terms of possible sales (tho' I think this is likely to be restricted to Fonte going to ManU) and purchases. Any further worsening of the standard of the squad will be the equivalent of an admission of the greed and short termism of the owners.of the owners

The fundamental problem stems from abandoning the on-the pitch strategy and formation and buying/selling players consistent with this strategy ie ones who fit the playing style which has now changed, because that is not Puel's preferred system. We should also give some considerable credit to Puel for some extended passages of play when we have looked a class above the opposition, but rarely converted this dominance into goals and wins because we cannot sustain it while we miss chance after chance and our opponents seem more equipped to be ruthless with their converted opportunities.

The fault primarily lies with the owners/board who have abandoned the strategy established in previous seasons and while we desperately need to augment our strike force and create a bit more anxiety in the opposition's penalty area we need urgently to go back to two defensive midfielders in front of the defence and to abandon this diamond strategy which doesn't work with the players we have today

Hull have sacked their manager why haven,t we?

The next 28 days will tell us a lot about the club's strategy. If the owners don't spend it shows they are not particularly interested in whether we come 8th or 16th, as long as we stay up. The big VVD (and perhaps Bertrand and Romeu) bonanza will come in the summer and well, who knows after that. I am still hoping that the club was simply complacent in the summer and will quietly accept they got it wrong and bring a couple of players in. It has to be said we could sink into the fringes of the relegation battle if we keep losing to distinctly average opposition + of course being comfortably beaten by the big boys.

As for 'Puel Out' the drum beats will get louder if things continue badly through January...

We all agree that something needs to change to get results. The manager, chairman, owner are not idiots, they know that too. The big question is what are they prepared to do. Buy in January? Get rid of the manager? Status Quo? Stop the rotation tactic? Not an easy solution to the current lack of form. Too early to sack the manager in my mind, we are in a dip of form but we are not spiralling yet. Mid season change of manager very seldom works. Let's all stay calm for a few weeks to see what management is going to do, but we cannot do nothing. More poor results will certainly speed up whatever decision finally happens.

This is the 'reply' received from the club...

"Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your feedback.

We do understand the frustration felt by our loyal fans at times of speculation and uncertainty. Your passionate and long standing support is appreciated by us all, and it is never our intention to cause such concern.

Your E Mail has been forwarded to colleagues"

Speaks for itself really

We're crap , we need new players and a new manager if we lose at Norwich . Back to basics

With the greatest respect Brock I'm not sure what you were expecting? I'm just impressed that they acknowledged it.

I was expecting nothing of course. You know what they say, never ask a question unless you already know the answer.

The only point of writing in is to register a protest, if enough people do it they maybe will take some notice.

The only other way is to stay away which is exactly what my son & I did over Christmas.

Fair enough. Personally I'm hoping the window will show some intent, but I'm sure the club will get the message from social media that the fanbase are not happy with the current performance of the team. Let's see how they react..